Sky plc (previously BSkyB) which bought the Living TV Group group in 2010. Originally launched as UK Living in 1993, the channel changed its name to Living TV in 1997 and then to Living in 2007. On 1 February 2011 Living changed its name to Sky Living. The channel's programming was aimed mainly at women and young adults, but with new shows such as CSI, Close to Home and Boston Legal, the channel is now broadening its audience reach to a wider range of demographics including men aged 18–45.

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UK Living began broadcasting on 1 September 1993, as part of the Sky Multichannels network.

UK Living was originally owned by a three way partnership; former ITV London franchise holder Thames Television, Tele-Communications Inc. and fellow cable communications company Cox Enterprises, with a budget of £25million.[1] The channel was mainly aimed at women aged between 25 and 45, broadcasting films, dramas, chat shows and soap operas. Most of its original programming came from the programme libraries of Thames Television and the BBC. A unique aspect was the repeats of programmes such as Kilroy, Anne and Nick, and Floyd, which were all shown within a week of being transmitted on mainstream television.

By January 1994, Flextech (later known as Virgin Media Television and Living TV Group), took over TCI's shares in UK living as part of a deal between the two companies[2][3]

By 1996, Telewest's Flextech division gained full control, after buying out the now-defunct Thames and Cox Enterprises.[4][5][6] Shortly afterwards the channel moved away from it reliance of BBC programming, and increase its output of American programming.

In 1997, when the BBC and Flextech launched the UKTV Network: UK Style, UK Horizons and UK Arena, it was decided that UK Living would remain a separate channel. As such, it had to remove the 'UK' branding to avoid being confused with the UKTV services; thus UK Living became Living.

BSkyB announced on 25 October 2010, that Living would be rebranded as Sky Living in early 2011 and moving EPG positions on Sky from channel 112 to 107, between Sky 1 and Sky Atlantic, to improve their entertainment line-up.[7] As part of an attempt to appeal more to men, the channel's pink branding were replaced by a blue and silver logo in September 2013.[8]

Brian Dowling was put forward as one of the public figures to represent the channel – by presenting programming including Celebrity Extra, Trolley Dollies, and a spin-off to I'm Famous and Frightened!. However in recent years, he has been mostly absent from the channel apart from the occasional Celebrity Extra presenting duties. Instead fellow Big Brother contestant Jade Goody became the channel's newest public face, with three different shows devoted to her life, Jade's Salon, Just Jade and Jade's PA, but in January 2007, she was dropped due to the racist row on Celebrity Big Brother. In 2009, when Jade discovered that she had terminal cancer, the channel acquired the exclusive rights to film a documentary through her final days followed by the show producing two-hour-long tribute shows a week after her death followed by a further two tribute shows in 2010 and 2011.

To continue the list of Reality TV stars hosting programmes, Jodie Marsh announced that she would be presenting a new programme called Get A Life starting on 1 March 2007. However, the channel announced that the show was to be cancelled and discussions got under-way as to whether the remaining four episodes would be aired.[9]

The channel announced in February 2007 that Abigail Clancy, the runner up Britain's Next Top Model (cycle 2) signed a deal with the channel to make a new reality show with Janice Dickinson as her mentor, on trying to crack into America.[citation needed]

The channel announced in June 2010 that model Katie Price had signed a £5 Million, 2-year contract to make and broadcast Series 3 and 4 of her fly on the wall show, What Katie Did Next after turning down a weaker offer from rival channel, ITV2 to continue making further series of the show. This will be the first time that her show will be broadcast in HD.[10]

The following is a list of the ten most watched shows on Sky Living, based on Live +7 data supplied by BARB up to 23 November 2014.[11] The number of viewers does not include repeats or airings on Living+1.

Sky Living is also available in the Republic of Ireland via Sky and UPC Ireland[12] and UPC Digital.[13] The Irish opt-out feed features localised advertising and sponsorship. The channel has been further trying to appeal to the Irish market with outdoor advertising in urban areas. Previously, Irish television channel TV3 were in charge of overseeing the Irish advertising, but Sky Media Ireland now operates the Irish opt-out feed.[14]

Living launched its website in 2001 as livingtv.co.uk, prior to the channel being renamed LivingTV in early 2002. This was initially represented on-screen by the addition of the letters 'TV' to the established logo. In a 2004 branding relaunch, the way the name was displayed changed to LIVINGtv.

In a further change in 2007, the channel name reverted from LIVINGtv back to LIVING (still officially spelt all in capitals, though some media write the name in normal case). In 2009, the idents were changed to a 3D logo, with glass on the side of the 'L' in either pink or blue. Other idents show the logo covered in paint, while Livingit adopted a slightly different appearance.

Living has a on demand service which is available on satellite and cable. It offers access to a number of shows which viewers may have missed first time around.

On demand content from Living was added to BT Vision's library on 15 January 2009. 38 hours of programming from six of the channel's shows; Extreme: Skinny Celebrities, Dirty Dancing, Living with the Cheeky Girls, Ibiza 2008 and Most Haunted were available from launch. Subscribers to BT Vision taking the TV and Value Packs were able to access the content with no additional cost; others were able to view it on a pay per view basis with prices starting at 77p.[15] Living programming was removed from BT Vision on 13 January 2010.[16]

The channel's on-demand offering was revamped during Autumn 2009 as Living Player on Virgin Media.[17] Living Player offers dedicated seven-day catch-up on shows such as Ghost Whisperer and Grey's Anatomy, as well as hours of archive content previously shown on the channel. Living Player will be made available on PCs, the player will also offer HD programming for free to all customers on the Virgin Media's XL TV package. Original commissions will be made available longer term.[18]

On 12 June 2009, Virgin Media managing director Johnny Webb revealed that a high-definition version of the channel would be rolled out during 2009 as part of a cross-platform strategy to boost the channel's brand and said that taking it into HD was "an absolute priority", to kickstart a HD roll-out of all of the Virgin Media Television channels.[21]

On 13 August 2009, Virgin Media added a placeholder for Living HD on channel 110, however it only showed a static 'coming soon' slate.[22] A standard-definition preview was added on 20 August 2009.

The channel launched on 6 October 2009 exclusively on Virgin Media.[23] The channel shows programming such as Criminal Minds, CSI, Ghost Whisperer and Private Practice in HD and is "a significant step forward in Virgin Media Television's cross-platform entertainment strategy".[24]

On 1 February 2011, the Living HD channel was relaunched as Sky Living HD. It now broadcasts on channel 107 for Sky+ HD customers with the HD channel swap. It continues to broadcast on Virgin Media, although, since July 2014, its channel number has changed.